All language subtitles for Strange.Evidence.S06E04.Tsunami.of.Fire.1080p.MAX.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BETHELL_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR: Worldwide, 36 billion
cameras are watching us.

On our streets, at work,
and in our homes,

they capture things that
seem impossible.

Science says this
shouldn't happen.

MAN: Do you see that?

NARRATOR: Experts carry out
forensic analysis

of these unusual events.

Wow, what a blast!

[woman screaming]

-This doesn't make sense.
-[screaming]

There has to be
some sort of explanation.

What else is going on here?

NARRATOR: Coming up,
a truck takes

home delivery
to the next level.

A 40-ton truck doesn't just
flip over like that.

NARRATOR: Are physical objects
starting to defy gravity?

What? Yes!

NARRATOR: In China,
is a chicken farmer

about to cook up
a Jurassic breakfast?

We do know that chickens are
quite closely related to

the Tyrannosaurus Rexes --
they share a lot of DNA.

[dinosaur roars]

NARRATOR: And a river
of fire chases men,

women, and animals through
a city street.

You see one of these
coming your way,

you better run --
run for your life.

NARRATOR:
Bizarre phenomena...

Oh, my gosh.
[gasps]

...mysteries caught on camera.

[screaming]

NARRATOR: What's the truth
behind this strange evidence?

Now, Lima, Peru.

January 23rd, 2020.

A CCTV camera captures
panic on the streets.

We've got an obvious street
view from what looks

like a security camera,
and people are running past.

Oh, they're running like
they are scared.

HOUSEHOLDER: This kind of looks
like a scene out of

a Hollywood
disaster movie.

WALLACE: Got this one kid
that's fell, he pulls

his mother down,
and there's even animals,

dogs running here.

What are they running
away from?

They're clearly trying to
escape something bad.

NARRATOR: Suddenly, fire races
through the street.

-Oh!
-The street is burning!

NARRATOR: There is no visible
source of fuel on the road,

and yet it burns.

It's not like a normal flame.

It's like a wave.

It's like a tsunami of flames
just crashing down the street.

NARRATOR:
The source, a mystery.

WALLACE: Here, we see these
flames coming down the street.

But what is off camera
that we do not see

that is terrifying
these people?

Everyone is
clearly in danger.

NARRATOR: These people
had good reason to run.

30 lives were lost
in this incident,

and author Jeff Belanger
wonders if

the cause could be
the dangerous love affair

Peruvians have with homemade
pyrotechnics.

Through December and January,

the Lima night sky
is just lit up with fireworks.

[fireworks exploding]

NARRATOR: The festive period in
Peru begins with Nochebuena

on Christmas Eve and reaches
a finale in the New Year.

BELANGER: New Year's in Lima
is a spectacular event,

and fireworks are a big part
of it.

[loud fireworks explosions]

NARRATOR: But fireworks are as
deadly as they are beautiful.

[loud fireworks explosions]

In America in 2017,

13,000 people are hospitalized
with injuries caused

by these colorful pyrotechnics.

And in Peru,
where safety runs

second to the nation's
fondness for fireworks,

the toll has been
even heavier.

In 2001, we had an incident in
Peru where we had a massive

event where all these fireworks
started going off.

[people screaming distantly]

WISE: Firefighters were able
to pick through the wreckage.

They found the bodies
of more than 235

men, women, and children.

NARRATOR: This disaster was one
of the deadliest fires in

Lima's history.

More than 1,000 tons of
fireworks exploded,

causing a firestorm that
burned four blocks to

the ground in the center
of this crowded city.

One survivor recalled rockets
whizzing across the street

and catching fire to a complex,

trapping many people inside.

NARRATOR: Many blamed
the incident on Peru's lax

pyrotechnic laws,

which allowed fireworks to
be sold

on street corners across
the capital.

WALLACE:
As crazy as it may seem,

this whole fiasco started
when we had a firework

owner demonstrating a firework,
and it ignited

the other materials.
-One stray spark,

one careless shopkeeper,
is enough

to cause
a catastrophic explosion.

[siren wailing]

NARRATOR:
Peru now has some of

the strictest fireworks
regulations in Latin America.

But these restrictions have
created a thriving

black market.

There's an enormous problem in

Peru with illegal
fireworks manufacturing.

These unregulated fireworks
are dangerous for the people

who make them
and the people who use them.

In November 2016,

Peruvian authorities seize
21 tons of illegal fireworks

in Lima and then detonate them
outside the city.

[explosion blasts]

So is it possible that it was

an illegal firework that was
behind this?

[crowd commotion]

NARRATOR: Hollywood pyrotechnics
expert Matt Kutcher has over

20 years experience
of blasts like these.

He doubts
this tsunami of fire

was a weird type
of firework exploding.

Look at that --
it's like a wave of fire.

So what everybody's
running from

has already exploded
or caught fire.

You know what that
reminds me of, right?

When an LPG tank ruptures.

NARRATOR: LPG stands for
liquefied petroleum gas.

It's a low-cost fuel,

usually either propane
or butane, used

for auto fuel in specially
adapted vehicles.

It's heavier than air,

so if it spills,
it flows along the ground.

Could a low-lying flammable
gas be ignited

and create a wave of fire
down the street?

-I think it's possible.
-I think it's possible.

Let's set up an experiment to
see if we can make this happen.

NARRATOR: A concrete floored
vehicle bay plays the part

of the Lima street surface
for this experiment.

All right, gentlemen.

So I think in
this space here,

we could try to create
that low-lying fog of LPG,

right? So, if we could bring
in a source of propane

and kind of stuff it into
this cavity,

it allows it to sink
and hit the ground.

The walls will kind of capture
it the way the street did,

the way the curbs did,
and it should roll out here,

and then we'll ignite it
when we can't see it

and see if we can't get that

wave to chase us
right out of here,

the same thing we saw
in that video.

NARRATOR:
An electrical ignition system

will provide a spark
to light the flame,

but parts of the experiment
are hard to control.

The gas itself is invisible.

Hopefully, because
we actually can't see

how much propane
we're putting in there,

it's not too much --
let's release

the propane
and make some waves.

NARRATOR: The gas, when released
from the pressurized

container, mixes with air
to become highly volatile.

-A little hot.
-It's hot.

Hey, we got to go --
in 3, 2, 1, hit it!

NARRATOR: Coming up,
can Kutcher catch

a wave of fire?
-Three, two, one, trigger.

Wham! It goes off.

NARRATOR: And the egg that will
eat you for breakfast.

HYDE: This demonic hybrid
turned out to be incredibly

aggressive and killed
the other eight in the brood.

NARRATOR:
Cameras capture men,

women, and animals fleeing from
a wave of fire that appears to

chase them down the street.

Pyrotechnics expert Matt
Kutcher wants to know if

a spill of liquefied petroleum
gas could create

this fire tsunami.

Let's release the propane
and make some waves.

3, 2, 1 --
hit it.

Wow! It goes off.

I think we made a wave of fire.

NARRATOR:
Slowed down frame by frame,

the wave of fire can clearly

be seen racing away
from the explosion.

A wave of fire just coming
right towards us,

right on the ground.

NARRATOR: The resemblance
to the fire burning

on the Lima street
is striking.

KUTCHER: You know,
with just one spark,

you get a terrifying wave of
fire from that LPG.

It's just stuck on the ground,
and wham! It goes off.

NARRATOR: This experiment
demonstrates the lethal

potential of a fuel that
many of us have in our homes.

Each year, gas leaks cause
an average of 4,200 fires

in U.S. homes,
killing about 40 Americans.

[loud explosion]

If you see one of these waves
of fire coming your way,

you better run --
for your life.

NARRATOR: Police reports
show a traffic accident

just moments before the blaze
moved down the street.

A fuel tanker carrying almost
3,000 gallons of liquefied gas

came speeding down a freeway
off ramp and hit a pothole.

The impact severed a fuel
line, causing a massive leak.

NARRATOR: The people captured
on camera got away,

but others had no warning
the flames were coming.

WALLACE: There was
30 people that were killed

in this tragedy,
and the majority of them were

due to the severe burns
they sustained.

This disaster was the
result of

poor safety practices
and crumbling infrastructure.

And for the people who were
caught in the middle, bad luck.

Now, Shenyang City, China.

October 8th, 2017.

On a Chinese chicken farm,
an unusual egg.

-Oh!
-What is even happening here?

This egg is unlike any
chicken egg I've ever seen.

NARRATOR:
The shell dips at the top,

allowing some weird protrusion
to poke out.

GROWICK: This egg has
a strange end to it,

something that almost looks
like a tail.

It's actually quite menacing.

GROWICK: What could have caused
a chicken to lay an egg

this shape?

There must be something
strange going on here.

NARRATOR: Biologist Carin Bondar
recognizes a familiar texture

to this weird appendage.

The protrusion
appears to be scaly,

almost reptilian in a way.

Chickens we know are

actually very closely related
to reptiles.

NARRATOR: Chickens,
like all modern birds,

are part of a reptile subclass
known as archosaurs

that dates back nearly
250 million years.

[rooster crowing]

Chickens are
actually relatively

closely related to alligators
and crocodiles.

And in fact, alligators and
crocodiles are more closely

related to birds than they are
to many other reptiles.

NARRATOR: Potvin believes
that some sort of

biological throwback could have
caused a reptilian

appendage to emerge
from the egg.

We get something
called atavism,

which is where genes will
actually almost regress to

a former state.

So could this be what
we're seeing here?

GROWICK: Recently, scientists
have been experimenting

with chicken DNA in an attempt
to re-express old genes.

This has actually
allowed them to grow

specific chickens that have
teeth in their beaks.

NARRATOR: In 2006, a biologist
in Wisconsin created a chicken

embryo with an alligator's
snout and teeth,

and gators aren't the chicken's

only unexpected
razor-toothed relative.

And we do know that chickens
are quite closely related to

the Tyrannosaurus Rexes --
they share a lot of DNA.

NARRATOR:
The biggest modern rooster,

the Jersey Giant, is just over
two feet tall and weighs in at

15 pounds, while T-rex
may have grown

to 40 feet long
and weighed up to 10 tons,

but biologists recognize
the similarity between

the two creatures' basic
body shapes.

[dinosaur roaring]

NARRATOR: And in 2003,
tiny traces of collagen

were discovered inside
a fossilized T-rex femur.

Collagen is a protein
that forms

the connective tissues in skin,
cartilage, and bone marrow.

When scientists examined
the Tyrannosaurus collagen,

it was similar to collagen
found in modern chickens

and ostriches.

When you look at a chicken,

you're technically looking at
an incredibly

highly evolved dinosaur.

[dinosaur growling]

Paleontologist Jack Horner
believes that by unlocking

atavistic traits
in bird genes,

it might be possible to
reverse engineer

prehistoric monsters.

[dinosaur roaring]

Chicken embryos
with snouts instead of beaks

and some raptor-like legs.

NARRATOR: This egg could be
evidence of prehistoric

genes becoming reactivated
in modern chickens.

And Karen Bellinger discovers
fast-growing Shenyang City

could offer
the perfect conditions

to cause such
biological throwbacks to occur

outside of a lab.

Shenyang City,
where this egg is from,

is incredibly polluted, to
the point that walking around

breathing the air all day is

like smoking three packs
of cigarettes.

NARRATOR: Shenyang has recorded
air pollution levels

50 times higher

than those considered safe by
the World Health Organization.

The city's air quality
has been

linked to mutations in
developing fetuses.

Could it be that we're now
seeing a regression of

the chicken's genes
to something that's more

similar to what a T-rex
might have looked like?

NARRATOR: If this is the case,
we may have to prepare

for a future in which
chicken-saurs walk the Earth.

Suddenly, taking your kids to
an innocent petting zoo could

end up being more like taking
them to Jurassic Park.

NARRATOR: But biologist
Carin Bondar

thinks it's unlikely
that pollution alone

could trigger
enough atavistic mutations to

cause a chicken to revert into
a full-blown dinosaur.

BONDAR: I'm not convinced
that something like

that is actually possible
in nature.

So there must be something
else going on.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
did a mash-up of

modern creatures make
a monster?

Could the father of
this chicken egg

actually be some kind
of snake?

NARRATOR: And the incredible
floating truck.

WOLSHON: One minute, you're
sitting, having a coffee

and the next minute,
you're looking at a truck

that is now sitting
on your roof.

NARRATOR:
A farmer in China films

a scaly limb emerging from
a chicken egg.

Biologist Leslie Samuel
believes the protrusion looks

reptilian,
and he suspects

that something
disturbing has occurred to

produce this extraordinary egg.

Could the father of
this chicken egg

actually be some kind
of snake?

NARRATOR:
In the Middle Ages,

it was commonly believed that

snakes and chickens could
produce offspring.

These eggs were laid by hens
but hatched as serpents.

NARRATOR: It sounds like
a medieval legend,

but on September 17th, 1881,

the National Tribune
newspaper runs a story about

an incredible incident in
Marlton, New Jersey.

A young boy found
a juvenile snake

and paired it up with
his newly hatched chicken.

He raised them together
in the same cage,

and so the two animals
became friends.

NARRATOR: Then events take
an even stranger turn.

It looks like a chicken
and a snake

had some kind of weird
Romeo and Juliet romance.

BONDAR: Then the chicken
laid some eggs,

but one of them was different
than all of the others.

NARRATOR: When the eggs hatch,
one of the newborns appears

to be something straight out
of a medieval horror story.

One of them actually ended up
hatching into some kind of

disgusting hybrid creature
with a chicken's body

and a snake's head,
complete with a forked tongue

that would come out
and sample the air.

NARRATOR: It's reported that
the creature's hideous

appearance is matched only
by its hostility.

This demonic hybrid
turned out to be incredibly

aggressive and killed
the other eight in the brood.

NARRATOR: People from across
the county come to

see this freak of nature
for themselves.

BONDAR: There were several
newspaper stories written about

the incident --
it became somewhat

of a neighborhood sensation.

If these accounts are to
be believed,

who knows what's gonna
hatch out of this egg.

NARRATOR: There are over
200 species of snake in China,

including the deadly
Chinese cobra.

A Taiwanese study
found its bite kills over

15 percent of humans who get
infected with its venom.

A chake or a snicken
on the loose

could be very bad news for
citizens of Shenyang.

This farm potentially just
became a much scarier place.

NARRATOR:
After the video was released,

the egg mysteriously disappears.

Scientists think
it's unlikely that a snake

and a chicken could produce
live offspring,

but until another explanation
comes along,

locals fear of venomous rooster
could be

a cock-a-doodle danger
to the people of Shenyang.

I'll never look at a chicken
the same way again.

Now, Alban in Ontario, Canada.

September 9th, 2019.

Dennis Lefebvre
dash cam records

a truck traveling
ahead of him.

This video starts out
just driving along

a nice, open road
around 5 PM.

Nothing looks out of
the ordinary.

Then something really
strange happens.

NARRATOR:
The truck veers off the road.

[tires screeching]

[crashing noises]

Its back end launches
into the air,

coming down on the roof of
a two story house.

Ooh...what?

-I can't believe this!
-What just happened there?

NARRATOR:
Lefebvre stops to check if

the truck driver and the house's
occupants are okay.

WOLSHON: One minute, you're
sitting, having a coffee,

and the next minute,
you're looking at

a truck that is now sitting
on your roof.

NARRATOR: The driver emerges
from his cab,

dazed but seemingly unhurt.

The homeowners are uninjured
but find themselves confronted

with a mystery --

how did a truck get on top of
their house?

40-ton truck doesn't just
flip over like that.

The energy required to achieve
this is immense.

It's almost as if a giant,
invisible hand has lifted

that truck out and placed it
gently on that house.

I'd expect to see something
like that in a video game,

but not in real life.

NARRATOR: There were
no high winds

on the day of the incident,

but an eyewitness report says
that as the truck starts to

levitate, a loud noise
can be heard.

Physicist Saad Sarwana

investigates if it
could be connected.

Could that loud bang be
responsible for levitating

this truck off the ground?

Sound has a powerful presence.

Loud music can rattle windows.

An opera singer
can shatter glass.

Ultrasound waves can pulverize
kidney stones.

If you can create sound waves
which are more powerful than

the gravity pushing
an object down,

you can create
acoustic levitation.

NARRATOR: Acoustic Levitation
is achieved when

an intense sound, normally
greater than 150 DB,

the same intensity as a jet
engine at takeoff, is

aligned into
a reflective frequency

called a standing wave
that can

suspend an object in the air.

Could a phenomena like
acoustic levitation

lift this truck in the air?

NARRATOR: Coming up,
can the power of sound

toss a truck like a toy?

The humble truck could
very easily

be turned into a super killer.

NARRATOR: And after the tragic
death of a young girl...

...a heavenly miracle follows
a hellish blaze.

You see everything burned,

and this one shrine that
is untouched.

NARRATOR: A driver in Canada
records a truck lifting

into the air
and landing on a house.

The eyewitness reports
hearing a mysterious

loud noise as the truck
jolts upwards.

Could the power of sound alone
have levitated the truck?

All right.

NARRATOR:
Engineer Nick Householder wants

to put the theory to the test.

So what I have here is

a set of ultrasonic speakers.

Each one of them is designed
to put out a sound wave

so high-pitched
that we can't hear it.

If I'm able to produce

a standing sound waves between
these two speakers,

there is effectively
a frozen sound wave.

The pockets of high and low
pressure should be able

to support an object like
a surfer on the ocean.

I'm using
the oscilloscope to

make sure that
the two waves line up.

So now, the yellow wave is
as strong as I can get it,

and its peak lines up at
the center of the square wave.

What I have here is a small
piece of Mylar --

it's thin, it's lightweight,
and it also reflects

sound waves.

So it should be able to slot
into the low pressure

zones that this standing wave
has created

between the two speakers --
let's see.

What?
Yes!

That's acoustic levitation.

This proves
that it's possible to

levitate an object with
sound waves.

NARRATOR:
But there's a problem.

The Mylar weighs just
a fraction of an ounce.

The truck in the footage
weighs about 40 tons.

For something
the size of a truck,

you would need a huge
sound source,

as well as an immense
amount of power.

We're talking about speakers
the size of

a football stadium and
the energy of a small town.

I don't see anything
like that on the road.

NARRATOR:
When engineer Rachel de Barros

studies the footage,

She notices the truck swerving
off the road just before

the moment of impact.

Perhaps that could be
the start of a death

wobble incident.

Jeeps and trucks have a solid
axle, and that makes them prone

to vibration and shaking along

the suspension and steering,
and it can get so bad, it can

lead to what's called
death wobble.

MORGAN: The way that it happens
is if you're driving

down the road,
and you hit a bump,

it doesn't
even have to be a big one,

the bump will resonate through
the front axle, and it will feed

into itself
and make itself worse.

NARRATOR:
A death wobble can occur

at just 50 miles per hour.
-DE BARROS: Before you know it,

your steering wheel is
whipping back and forth,

which leaves you
white knuckling it.

NARRATOR:
When the death wobble strikes,

it can kickstart a terrifying
chain of events.

If that's what's
happening here,

the swerving wheel has set
the truck on a course

for disaster.

You can see the front of
the truck going right into

the ditch, and this may have
acted somewhat like a ramp.

NARRATOR: The truck slams
into a utility pole,

snapping the pole in half
and bringing the truck

to a dead stop.

The truck has all
this forward moving inertia,

and that inertia has got to
go somewhere.

NARRATOR: The redirected energy
lifts the back of the truck off

the road, but De Barros doesn't
believe that this inertia would

be enough to lift
it 15 feet in the air.

This on its own is
very unlikely

to cause the entire
back to flip up.

NARRATOR: The final piece
of the puzzle is

a second jolt visible just
after the moment of impact.

BRENSENBERGER: If there's
something inside of

the back part of the truck,
it may have shifted from

the sudden stop,
and that could have pushed

the truck
in an upward motion.

NARRATOR:
At the moment of impact,

an unsecured cargo sliding
down to the front could push

the truck up into the air like
it was flipped by a superhero.

This load shift can be deadly --
when whatever's inside

the trailer can
move independently,

it can slide around, and when
the brakes are applied,

can shift forward even into
the cab, killing the driver.

BRENSENBERGER: An unsecured load
can throw off the truck's

center of gravity,

and this can result in
a rollover or jack knifing.

NARRATOR: The footage that looks
like an astonishing act

of levitation is actually
a glimpse of

a hidden killer
riding the highways.

It is estimated that 800,000
trucks carrying dangerous

cargoes are hauled across

American roads every
single day.

Some of them carrying explosive
fuels and toxic chemicals.

Which means that
the humble truck could very

easily be turned
into a super killer.

NARRATOR: This time,
everyone walked away.

I think what
we've learned is that

danger can strike in
the most unexpected places.

Now, Armstrong in Santa Fe,
Argentina.

August 3rd, 2020.

A firefighter
films the aftermath of

a wildfire that swept through
an area of farmland.

He's walking through
this black, decimated,

ravaged landscape.

The ashes stretched to
the horizon, as far as the eye

can see in all directions.

Fire doesn't discriminate --
it burns everything...

or does it?

NARRATOR: A gleaming white
shrine with a cross on it

stands on a small, unburned
patch of land.

Like the whole area is
charred, except for

this one shining, bright white
shrine that just stands out.

Even in a fire,
you would expect that, if it

wasn't burned,
this shrine would at least

be covered in ash,
covered in soot.

But it's nothing,
it's totally perfect.

SZULGIT: There's something
weird going on here.

Like, there's some invisible
force protecting this.

NARRATOR: Coming up, has this
shrine been saved by divine

intervention or by the mob?

GOTTLIEB:
Looks like a miracle...

but there could be something
a little more sinister going on.

NARRATOR:
And a security camera captures

strange beings stalking
a suburban driveway.

ORZEL: Little creatures waddling
around beams of light.

It's hard not to make the jump
to thinking they're aliens.

NARRATOR: A firefighter
in Argentina

films an incredible sight.

A wildfire tears through
a field, leaving

a gleaming white shrine
mysteriously untouched by

the flames.

NARRATOR: Religious objects
and even people

have been reported to
miraculously survive

heat and flames before.

St. John the Apostle,
the last of Jesus's

close allies, was said
to have been plunged

into hot, boiling oil but to
have emerged unscathed.

His follower, St. Polycarp,
was tied to the stake

and set aflame, but allegedly,
the flames refused to actually

touch his body.

NARRATOR: Even today,
religious objects appear to

have been spared destruction
in inexplicable ways.

BELLINGER:
After 9-11, firefighters found

a Bible fused to a piece of

molten metal in an area where
everything else around it

was completely obliterated.

The Bible was open to Matthew,
chapter five,

the Sermon on the Mount.

To believers,
this would be

sure proof of God's power --
to destroy,

when he so chooses,
but also to preserve.

NARRATOR: Investigation
of the tragic story

behind the shrine deepens
the mystery.

This is a shrine to
a 13-year-old girl,

put up after her tragic death
in an auto accident.

It's nowhere near
the road where she died.

So you have to ask yourself,
why is it there?

Looks like a miracle,
but there could

be something a little more
sinister going on.

NARRATOR: Historian Craig
Gottlieb suspects that something

insidious might be buried
beneath the field.

There's got to be something
underground that's preventing

the fire from spreading into
this particular spot.

NARRATOR:
Many hazardous chemicals have

fire-retardant properties.

Could it be that
there's toxic waste under

the shrine, and that's what's
causing the fire not to burn?

NARRATOR: Argentina is
a nation that could

become the world's hazardous
waste dump.

Armstrong, where the shrine is,
is just up from

Buenos Aires,
and Buenos Aires

has a huge
problem with waste,

and this waste
isn't just homegrown.

President Mauricio Macri
signed a decree allowing

the import of toxic waste
into the country in 2019.

NARRATOR: Around the world,
mobsters get their

hands dirty making money
from trash.

In Italy, the Mafia was
earning $16 billion dollars

a year collecting garbage
from cities

and then illegally dumping it
all over the countryside.

A recent Interpol report
indicates that Buenos Aires

has become
a key stomping ground

of organized crime
in Argentina.

Could the shrine be on top of
an illegal

trash dumping site that's
poisoning the environment

from miles everywhere?

I don't know what is more sad --
that this

could be evidence of
an illegal landfill

or deceased a girl's shrine
sits on top of it.

NARRATOR: The farmer and the man
who put up the shrine might

have unwittingly been used by
illegal garbage dumpers to

cover their tracks.

But investigations of
the field have yet to reveal

any proof of flame-retardant
chemicals in the soil,

and many locals see
the survival of

the shrine as evidence of
divine intervention.

A miracle,
a toxic landfill --

perhaps we'll never know
for sure.

NARRATOR: Now, Dallas, Texas.

August 28th, 2020,
5:31 a.m.

A security camera covers
a suburban driveway.

BONDAR: It seems like a calm,
normal night in this Texas

suburb...until suddenly,
these two

very strange creatures appear.

SANFORD:
They are really bizarre.

They appear to be
about two feet tall,

crouched over like
demonic gremlins.

NARRATOR: The intruders
stalk the driveway

with an unknown purpose.

The more I watch this,
the creepier it gets.

What are these highly
unusual creatures?

And where did
they come from?

NARRATOR: And then, one of them
shoots something.

Whoa!

I did not expect it
to do that.

That's crazy.

What is that strange light
being shot into the sky?

Looks almost like
a missile firing out.

Could that be some kind of
a laser gun

or communication device?

Little creatures waddling
around beams of light.

It's hard not to make the jump
to thinking they're aliens.

NARRATOR: Biologist Carin Bondar
believes that these nighttime

intruders could have
come from the skies.

The way these creatures are
moving, coupled the stocky shape

and the size remind me of
a very particular

nocturnal bird --
the owl.

[owl calls]

NARRATOR: Texas has at least
11 species of owl,

and these birds are built
for killing.

If these owls are stalking
this house,

the owners better make sure
that they've got their pets

inside --
owls are well known to

attack anything that will make
a good meal.

In 2009, Sadie the Pomeranian
was snatched

by a hungry owl
in Davenport, Iowa.

Owls are very territorial
and have been known to attack

humans, unprovoked, just for
being in their territory.

Owls attack their prey
with such force,

it's akin to a human being
struck by an 18 wheeler.

NARRATOR: In 2014, the citizens
of Purmerend in the Netherlands

are subjected to
a year-long reign of terror

by a European eagle owl.

MAN: He flew towards us,

and he attacked my client,
and he got my client

here at the back
and he wounded her

with the -- at the cheek.

NARRATOR:
Over a 12-month period,

this owl is responsible for
more than 50 attacks

that leave many of its victims
bloodied and bruised.

When we go out at night
or when it's dark,

we go out only
with umbrellas with us.

It doesn't detect them.

This looks like a scene
out of a horror film.

Having owls get up close and
personal with your property

could spell bad news.

NARRATOR: But normal owls
don't fire a light beam

like the creature
in the footage.

The streak of light
that shoots up --

what could that possibly be?

NARRATOR: Coming up,
could these nighttime

intruders be armed with
deadly weapons?

The liquid that
they are able to

project is as effective
as tear gas.

NARRATOR: A security camera
in suburban Dallas

captures mysterious beings
prowling a property.

Then, one of
the creatures fires

a glowing projectile
into the night.

Physicist Chad Orzel takes
a closer look at the footage.

So on the first viewing,
it certainly looks like these

creatures are shooting some
kind of laser into the sky.

Lasers are different
than ordinary light sources

in that the light
waves are coherent, and this

allows them to be focused into
a very tight beam that stays

together all in
the same direction.

Lasers are a great way of

sending communication signals
over very long distances,

and NASA has experimented with

using them for
space communication,

but is that what we're seeing
in this video?

NARRATOR: Orzel freezes
the video and notices

that the beam shot
by the creatures

doesn't stay
together as a laser would,

but it separates.

He wonders if
the type of security

camera used could explain
the bright beam.

This monochrome recording
looks like something from

a night vision camera, which
records in the infrared --

that's a wavelength that's not
visible to our eyes.

When using infrared light,

things are not always
as they seem.

Highly reflective materials
can become much brighter,

and what looks like a laser beam
could just be some more

ordinary object that reflects
very well in the infrared.

I think what we're seeing
here could

be the spray from some sort
of liquid.

NARRATOR: Orzel believes
the projectile is a spray of

liquid glowing in the infrared
night vision of the camera.

He comes up with an experiment
to test his theory.

I have here a small syringe
full of water

that I will take and squirt

across the field of view of
the camera when it's in

its night vision mode.

And let's see what that water
looks like when

it's lit up by the infrared
light on the camera.

So now I'm gonna switch
the lights off

so the camera will go into
its night mode,

and in night vision mode,
we'll squirt liquid

across the field of view.

[squirting noise]

And then let's see
what that looks like.

[squirting noise]

[squirting noise]

Yeah, there it is.

It's very quick in real time.

But if we slow it down,

we see the stream of water
looks very bright in the light

from the camera.

So what we're seeing in
the video is probably

a stream of liquid being
jetted out by these creatures.

Biologist Jayde Lovell
believes one notorious local

resident might fit the profile
of Orzel's theory.

What animals do we know that
live in Texas and are known to

shoot liquid at high velocity?

And the obvious answer is
it could be a skunk.

NARRATOR: A skunk's liquid spray
is one of

the most powerful chemical
weapons found in any mammal.

Skunks are very effective
at deterring predators.

The liquid that
they are able to

project is as effective
as tear gas.

NARRATOR: A skunk emits its
spray from scent glands located

inside its rectum,
and it can fire jets

of this noxious liquid over
a distance of up to 10 feet.

The vile excretion contains
thiols, the same sulfur-based

compounds that give onions

their eye-watering effect.

But the thiols in skunk spray
are much more potent.

They stink like rotting
carcasses, and the spray can

cause temporary blindness,

coughing, and vomiting.

NARRATOR: The stench is
so powerful that it

can be detected
from over a mile away.

SANFORD: Skunks target
the nose and the mouth.

At high enough doses,

it can even be lethal
to humans.

NARRATOR: The thiols in skunk
spray are highly toxic.

Scientists have reported that
they have an aesthetic

properties that in high

concentrations can
cause unconsciousness,

lower pulse rate,
and eventually, death.

Knowing how effective
skunk spray is,

you definitely don't want to
be wandering

around outside in Texas
with these boys around.

NARRATOR: As powerful
as skunk spray is,

it's also a weapon of
last resort.

It can take a skunk
up to 10 days to

replenish the foul musk after
it has emptied its glands.

So a pair of skunks alone on
a quiet

suburban Dallas street
wouldn't be spraying without

good reason.

These animals are
displaying behaviors

that make me think
they feel threatened.

The fact that I can't see
in the camera

whatever is making them so
nervous, makes me nervous.

NARRATOR:
What else might be lurking

just beyond the view
of the lens?

There are strange things that
come out at night.

So be careful when you're out
there on the streets.